App for chatting with multiple AI models simultaneously?

A few days ago, a new app called 'AI Council' was presented here by u/Wacko_66. The dev, u/Techniciti popped up there too, also mentioning promo codes. The thread died a premature dead since for some reason the same day the account of the dev was banned from Reddit.

I thought the app was interesting and I started a search for similar apps. And I found the onces following below (starting with AI Council as this fired everything up).

I'm very curious to learn which apps:

* are very good
* are easy to work with
* are for general purpose use (not coding or a niche purpose)
* have good price/quality balance

And are there great apps like these that are not mentioned? What apps would you recommend?

[**AI Council**](https://ai.techniciti.eu/) \- Says: "AI Council queries multiple AI systems simultaneously, has them peer-review each other anonymously, and synthesises their best insights into one reliable response.'

**Pricing**: macOS € 29.99 One-time purchase. Free updates included. | iOS € 9.99 One-time purchase. Free updates included.

[**Chatwise**](https://chatwise.app/) \- Says: "Simple, Powerful and Privacy-Friendly AI Chat. And it works for any LLM."

**Pricing**: Free $0 - Pro $29 one-time payment

[**MSTY**](https://msty.ai/) \- Says: "Msty Studio is your all-in-one AI studio. Mix local & online models, build powerful assistants, automate workflows, and make AI work for you."

[**TypingMind**](https://www.typingmind.com/) \- Says: "Advanced chat UI for AI models. ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and more. All in one place."

**Pricing**: Standard $39 - Extended $79 - Premium $99

[**MindMac**](http://mindmac.app/) \- Says: "Connect seamlessly, chat effortlessly with ChatGPT on macOS

Modern. Native. Friendly UI. Compatible with OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, Google Gemini and more. Designed for macOS."

**Pricing**: Basic $29 - Personal $49 - Standard $69

[**Chorus**](https://chorus.sh/) \- Says: "All the AI, on your Mac. Chat with o3, Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek, and others all at once. The best models, as soon as they come out, in one open source app.

**Pricing**: free

[**Apollo**](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/apollo-powered-by-liquid/id6448019325) (Powered by [Liquid](https://www.liquid.ai/)) - Says: "Chat with private, local Als, connect to every open source Al, or your own locally-hosted private LLMs. Apollo is your own customizable client for accessing language models from all around the web."

Local model support (experimental): run smaller LLMs privately and securely on-device

OpenRouter support: bring an OpenRouter API key to chat with every model on the web.

Custom Backend support: Run an LLM on your computer with tools like LM Studio or Ollama and connect to it with Apollo to host your own private ChatGPT-like mobile app for your family.

**Pricing**: Free $0

https://redd.it/1qz8wwr
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[macOS] I built a free, open source macOS screen recorder that feels native and supports all the modern capture features you'd expect
https://redd.it/1qza8af
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kaida - macOS app for geotagging photos

https://redd.it/1qzbnui
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Russet: on-device AI assistant with 20+ local models and deep system integration. Designed purely for Apple silicon.

https://redd.it/1qzc2rn
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Which Mac app have you recently stopped using, and why?



https://redd.it/1qzaaod
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Pouring free Moonshine for beta testers, a menu bar app that remembers your entire workspace per monitor

Hey r/macapps,

I built Moonshine, a native Swift menu bar app that saves and restores your entire workspace — window positions, audio devices, dock settings, and running apps — automatically when you. connect or disconnect monitors.

The problem: Every time you dock your laptop at work, plug into your home setup, or go to a coffee shop, macOS scatters your windows, routes audio to the wrong device, and you spend 5-10 minutes getting everything back in place. No single app solves all of this together.

What Moonshine does:

\- Window memory — Saves and restores every window's exact position and size across all displays. Works with Chrome, VS Code, Slack, Finder, Terminal, Firefox, and more.

\- Multi-monitor profiles — Automatically detects your display setup by hardware (vendor/model/serial). Plug in your monitor and everything snaps back. Works with any number of displays.

\- Audio routing — Switches output and input devices per profile. Restores volume levels too. Go from laptop speakers at the coffee shop to your USB mic + headphones at your desk,automatically.

\- App launching — Remembers which apps were running per profile and silently launches them in the background when a profile activates.

\- Dock position — Saves dock orientation (bottom/left/right), autohide setting, and icon size per profile. Dock on the left with your ultrawide? Bottom with just the laptop? Handled.

\- Manual profiles — Same monitor at different locations? Create multiple profiles and switch manually from the menu bar.

\- Keyboard shortcuts — Ctrl+Opt+R to restore, Ctrl+Opt+C to re-capture.

What I'm looking for:

10 beta testers to try Moonshine before launch and report bugs, UX issues, or edge cases I haven't hit. Especially looking for:

\- Multi-monitor setups (2+ external displays)

\- Mixed monitor brands (e.g., Dell + LG + Apple)

\- Dock/undock workflows (MacBook + Thunderbolt dock)

\- Unusual app setups (lots of windows, niche apps)

What you get:

\- Free license for the final release (launching at $14.99, one-time purchase — not a subnoscription)

\- Direct line to me for feedback

Requirements: macOS 14 Sonoma or later. Requires Accessibility permission (not sandboxed — this is how window management works on macOS).

Website: https://moonshine.griffoncrest.com

If you're interested, join this discord and I will move you to the private channel that has the beta app link: https://discord.gg/9sRB6xCV
Even if you can't test, an upvote helps me gauge interest and motivates an earlier release.

Thanks!

https://redd.it/1qz9fx0
@macappsbackup

Record iPhone and iPad from your Mac

https://redd.it/1qzg4l4
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[macOS] SnipperApp 3 - Native Code Snippet Manager

https://redd.it/1qzg21s
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cringe video but amazing tool

https://redd.it/1qzmf2b
@macappsbackup

Stop Making CRON Jobs!

Shell Text

TL;DR:

Cron is great on always-on Unix servers and mostly terrible on Macs. It has no awareness of sleep, login state, or network availability, so scheduled jobs often just don’t run. On macOS, the real scheduling system is launchd, which understands system events and conditions—but writing launchd jobs by hand is painful. If you need reliable background automation, use a GUI tool like Lingon Pro or LaunchD Task Scheduler. For user-level automations while you’re logged in, Keyboard Maestro and Apple Shortcuts are excellent—but they can’t replace launchd for true unattended tasks.



# Cron Was Made for Always-On Unix Servers

Early in my career, I used to get annoyed when the old hands would wave away every automation problem with, "Just make a cron job."

Cron dates back to the earliest days of Unix. It's simple, dumb, and dependable: once a minute it checks a text file, and if a line in that file matches the current time, it runs the associated command. Like most Unix tools, it works great--once you learn the arcane scheduling syntax.

For example:

0 3 /Users/amerpie/noscripts/backup.sh

To cron, that means: run this noscript every day at 3:00 AM.\*

Cron was designed for machines that live in server rooms--powered on 24/7, connected to stable networks, and rarely put to sleep.

macOS laptops are… not that.

The core problem is that cron has zero situational awareness. It doesn't know or care whether:

you're logged in
the network is available
the laptop is asleep
macOS has changed anything since 1993
modern features like sandboxing, power-saving modes, or System Integrity Protection exist

Cron just runs on schedule. If your Mac is asleep at 3:00 AM, tough luck.

That limitation makes cron a poor fit for most real-world Mac automation.

# That's Why We Have launchd

Apple introduced launchd over 20 years ago with OS X 10.4 (Tiger) to replace cron and a pile of other legacy services.

Unlike cron, launchd actually understands the modern Mac environment. It can handle:

starting and stopping apps
running background tasks
scheduling jobs
managing daemons
responding to system events

Most importantly, launchd isn't limited to "run at this time." It can trigger jobs based on state and context, including:

specific times or intervals
system boot
user login
file or folder changes
network availability
hardware events
on-demand conditions

In other words, launchd is designed for the messy, mobile, power-managed world Macs actually live in.

There's just one big catch.

You don't create launchd jobs with a simple line of text. Instead, you have to write XML property list files--verbose, picky, easy to mess up, and filled with cryptic keys you're expected to understand.

For most sane people, that's a hard pass.

# Useful Third-Party Apps That Make This Easy

Fortunately, it's 2026, and no one needs to hand-craft launchd XML files anymore. Several excellent Mac apps provide friendly interfaces for building launchd jobs or similar scheduled tasks.

# [Lingon Pro](https://www.peterborgapps.com/lingon/)

Lingon has been around for more than two decades, and it's still one of the best launchd tools available.

It gives you a clean GUI for creating complex jobs that can run:

whether your Mac is awake or asleep
whether you're logged in or not
with root privileges if necessary
with "keep alive" rules that automatically restart crashed processes

If you need serious, reliable background automation on macOS, Lingon Pro is the gold standard.

Price: $23.99 one-time, or $11.99/year subnoscription

Trial: Full-featured one-week trial

# **LaunchD Task Scheduler**

This is a simpler, cheaper alternative to Lingon Pro. It doesn't have quite the same depth, but it's more than enough for many users.

Key features:

Create,

edit, and delete launchd tasks
Run jobs at intervals or on schedules (daily, weekly, monthly)
Trigger tasks based on events like:
volume mounting
user login
folder changes
Keep tasks running and auto-restart if they crash

If you want basic launchd automation without a learning curve, this $4.99 app is a solid value.

# **Keyboard Maestro**

Keyboard Maestro isn't primarily a scheduler--but it does include powerful time-based and event-based triggers.

Some of the available triggers:

Hot keys
App launch / quit / activate / deactivate
Window events
Clipboard changes
Specific times or intervals
Typed strings
USB device events
Public web URLs
MIDI input
Device connection/disconnection
Login
Network changes

The downside: Keyboard Maestro only works when:

you're logged in
the Mac is awake
the Keyboard Maestro Engine is running

So it's not a replacement for launchd. But for user-level automation, it's incredibly powerful.

For example, I have a macro that periodically checks whether Raycast, Hazel, Stream Deck, and BetterTouchTool are running--and restarts them if they're not. That's the kind of practical glue automation Keyboard Maestro excels at.

# Apple Shortcuts

Shortcuts on macOS has matured a lot, especially since macOS Tahoe. It now supports time-based automations similar to what iOS users have had for years.

But there are important limitations:

You must be logged in
The Mac must be awake
It's better suited to workflows than true background services

Still, Shortcuts can trigger actions based on:

specific apps
power conditions
hardware connections
network changes
file system events
Bluetooth devices
time of day

If you have an always-on Mac mini or studio, Shortcuts can be surprisingly capable. On a sleeping laptop, not so much.

# More Apps with Time-Based or Event Triggers

If you just need "run this thing on a schedule" without diving into launchd, these are worth a look:

[Task Till Dawn](https://appaddict.app/post/task-til-dawn-a-free-mac-automation-app) \-- Free automation tool for file management, printing, and browser tasks
**Alarm Clock Pro** \-- Far more than an alarm clock; great for scheduled app launching and noscripts
[Shortery](https://appaddict.app/post/shortery-the-missing-mac-automator) \-- Adds real triggers to Apple Shortcuts (Wi-Fi, calendar, time, etc.)
**Scheduler for Mac** \-- Lightweight app and noscript scheduler
Automator + Calendar Alerts \-- Built-in macOS trick: create an Automator workflow, then have Calendar open it at a specific time
**Launch Control** \-- A high-end launchd GUI similar to Lingon Pro, but pricier

# Bottom Line

If you're automating a real Mac--not a headless server--cron is usually the wrong tool.

For anything that needs to run reliably in the background, use launchd. And unless you genuinely enjoy editing XML by hand, use a GUI tool like Lingon Pro or LaunchD Task Scheduler to manage it.

For user-level automations while you're actively working, Keyboard Maestro and Shortcuts are fantastic.

Pick the right tool for the job, and your automations will actually work when you need them--rather than silently failing at 3:00 AM while your Mac sleeps peacefully on the nightstand.

https://redd.it/1qzmx3u
@macappsbackup